Have you ever noticed some books are just about stories and some are about teaching a lesson? We have needs and wants for both types. Today I am sharing a book with a story that has kids doing a lesson in it. The book is the first in a series. It is Adventures with Allie and Friends: Chef Cherie's Cafe by Melanie Moore and illustrated by Juan Diaz. There is a giveaway after my review!
About the Book:
Adventures with Allie and Friends: Chef Cherie’s Cafe Written by Melanie Moore and Illustrated by Juan DiazAges: 3-8 | 40 Pages | Publisher: Mascot Publishing (2025) | ISBN: 979-8891385351
Publisher’s Book Summary: Meet Allie! She loves helping her friends any way she can. She is always on the lookout for new ways to make a difference.
In this first book about her adventures, Allie helps Chef Cherie with her restaurant.
Will you come along with Allie and Chef Cherie?
Purchase Links:
About the Author:
Melanie Moore is a native West Texas girl born into a loving Christian family. She was born with several disabilities, but that never stopped her! When she was a little girl, she participated in elementary-level cheerleading, sang in the school choir, and played the clarinet in the marching band. In her spare time, she loved reading The Berenstain Bears, The Babysitter’s Club, and the Sweet Valley High series. Some of her favorite pastimes were vacationing in the mountains of New Mexico, family get-togethers, and picking pecans at her grandparents’ farm.
After graduating from high school, she went to Hardin-Simmons University, where she was elected Treasurer of the Social Work Club and earned a Bachelor of Behavioral Sciences in Social Work. During that time, she interned for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Abilene. She helped connect children with possible mentors. She was also a mentor to a little girl in the program.
After college, she worked for the public school system in her hometown. She explored her creative side while working with speech language pathologists, occupational therapists, physical therapists, music therapists, behavior specialists, autism specialists, teachers, and students. With the encouragement and guidance of her supervisors and coworkers, she created social stories and a small categorical book for speech-language pathologists.
Melanie has spent most of her career working with children with special needs. She credits her success to the students she works with every day. Her motto is that we must first seek the needs and wants of each student and allow them to teach us before we can teach them. These days, she is mostly focused on family days completed with a rousing game of Train, attending a Supper Club ministry at her church, volunteering with the Education Foundation, and maintaining a goal of walking three miles every day—or at least she tries!
https://www.facebook.com/AllieAdventures
From Me:
In this first book we meet Allie. She invites us along to visit her friend, Chef Cherie. Chef Cherie is getting ready to open her new cafe. She asks for help with her menus. She needs to make sure the breakfast food is on the breakfast menu and the lunch food is on the lunch menu. The pages then share a type of food and ask the reader which menu it should be on. It is a fun and interactive book for young children!
I love that this book is about helping a friend. It teaches the lesson that we need to help one another and accept help when it is offered. I also love that the book is interactive asking the reader which category each food belongs in. I can see the adult reader and kid(s) enjoying a discussion about how to categorize the food. It is perfect for an early elementary classroom discussing how you organize or categorize things. It would be a nice introduction or fun change in this type of lesson. The book is simple, and the pictures are colorful, and I can see young kids loving it. I definitely would recommend it as a read aloud book where there could be discussion of the choices made. A fun activity to go with the book would be to make your own menus, the book even has two menus for kids to make their own at the end of the book. And of course, another great idea is to go out for breakfast or lunch and compare the menus of the restaurant with Chef Cherie's.
Giveaway:
Enter for the chance to win one of 10 hardcover copies of Adventures with Allie and Friends: Chef Cherie’s Cafe by Melanie Moore! Good luck!
Adventures with Allie and Friends: Chef Cherie's Cafe: Book Giveaway
